Adventures In Proto48 and 3D Design

Converting the “New” AtlasO 70 Ton Roller Bearing Truck

I am not entirely enamored with this style of post with the weird way it loads in photos, but alas it is what it is…

Here are the photos of the New Style AtlasO 70 Ton roller bearing truck. In this particular case, I am using the Realistic Drop in Replacement (RDIR) conversion bolster. What this does is converts the truck with a bolster that looks more realistic than the standard Atlas parts, but still allows you to not HAVE to make any more modifications to the car for coupler height, unless you want to. Even if you use Protocraft couplers, it should be okay. These use the more standard 33″ Protocraft wheelsets, which you can find here:

There are a couple of caveats with the RDIR truck: As I found out, you will need to drill a clearance hole for the screws that hold the sideframes, although I will work on repairing the model to have that feature. It also isn’t coming with the end caps on the model. My suggestion would be to buy a set of 8 or 32 end caps which will work with these axles … They won’t work properly with the 100 Ton axles from Protocraft, since the ends are different. The good thing about ordering the bearing caps separately is that you can order the more detailed versions, which should look a lot better than the ones made with WSF, but it is, of course your choice. Here is the link for ordering the bearing caps:

Addendum …. I added a comment to this post, but I’m not sure that everyone will see that right away, so I will put this in the main body of the post: I have made modifications to the bolster to add the bearing caps and bored out a hole in the bolster to permit the use of the side frame screws without issue … in theory. I also hollowed out the bottom part of the bolster, so the increase in cost for the bearing caps is only $0.50 per bolster pair. Here is the link to the new part …

It also adds the holes to permit the sideframe screws to be used without you having to modify the bolster yourself. The new bolster pair is 0.50 more, which accounts for the addition of the bearing caps.